[PRP] A Lifelong Investment (Jamie & Renard)

[shibrogane]

Renard shifted the exploded stone from both hands to just one, and held out a hand for Jamie's. "I'm not sure it's any good for its intended purpose," he said. "My grounding in magical theory was much less complete, then. I'm sure that the structure itself is still sound, if there's a purpose you'd like to bend it to."

He guided Jamie's hand to the stone and it sloughed off Renard's large dark hand into Jamie's smaller, paler one. Touching it felt like pressing a hand into something--not slimy, that wasn't the right descriptor, but it was smooth and warped at Jamie's touch and was slightly warm. Like pressing a hand into flesh. "How much do you know of magic in the otherworld, Mr. Delacroix?"

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

The feel of the stone had changed entirely and it wasn't like anything Jamie expected. It was somewhat startling, but he took it without fuss, eyes wide as he moved his fingers and felt the artifact shifting around them. Now he cradled it with both hands, rocking it gently as if trying to understand it. He still wasn't sure how Renard had turned the stone into something like this.

"Admittedly," he said with a small sigh, "not much. I feel like I don't really understand anything and I never really knew who to talk to about it." He shook his head. "All I really know is if you truly believe you can do it, you probably can."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

The stone jiggled like Jello fresh out of the mold. Renard watched it, that strange hungry look on his face again. "That's close enough to the truth that I'm not sure the difference matters," he admitted. "It helps to have an existing structure to direct your energy and willpower. This could be something like that, for you."

He didn't reach out to touch the spell structure again. It was easy to see he wanted to, but he jammed his hands in his pockets and looked away from it. His eyes roved over the nearest painting, flicking from one detail to the next. "When my friends died," he said, "I had a spell I'd created that would... it would catalogue what it was that had killed them. I fed that into the spell structure, recreate it, and..." He shrugged. "Fix it. A little at a time. It wouldn't be hard for you to do something similar, if you had a goal in mind."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

It didn't take a genius to note the way Renard looked at the stone; Jamie had seen that look before and he saw it now, plain as day. I've never done well with temptation repeated in his mind and he thought he was truly beginning to understand the gravity of the object he held between his hands. Part of him wanted to try and tuck the structure away again, revert it to its previous form and stash it back in the box, but he wanted to keep learning, so he didn't.

"So, if I focus my thoughts on it," he started, voice slow and calculated, even if he didn't quite know the best way to ask, "will it amplify my magic and make it more likely to work? Or is it not a short-term thing like that?"

There wasn't anything Jamie could think of, at least not at that very moment without careful consideration, that he wanted to attempt to change over the long-term. Saving his friends from an awful death was as good a goal as any and it was one Jamie actually appreciated Renard for, but something told him if he didn't proceed with caution, something bad could easily happen.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"No, nothing so simple," said Renard. "Unless your long-term goal was to increase your magic, in which case I'd ask why use such a rare thing for something that will certainly happen."

He was quiet for a minute, and then he said, "You're a moonwalker, aren't you? Say you wanted to... make it so you didn't have to transform in the otherworld. You could do that with this, make it so you'd be able to transform here, without losing your mind to the pain. It would take time, and quite likely a volunteer who would transform here without the spell so you could collect the data, but it could be done. Something like that."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"Ohhh," he muttered, looking into the stone as if he expected it to give him the answer to what he should do. "I see. That makes more sense now." A pause as he considered this. There were a lot of options, a lot of important ones. Whatever Jamie chose, he would have to decide carefully.

He wanted to make a difference.

"Um..." now he looked back up at Renard, "Thank you for explaining it to me. I'm gonna do my best."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"See that you do," said Renard.

Then he said, "You were looking for the environmental sciences building?"

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

With a slow, deep breath, Jamie morphed the stone to its previous form so he could store it back in the box. The key went back around his neck, the box back into his bag. It hadn't been his intention to meet with Renard, but he was glad it happened.

If nothing else, he came out of it knowing more than he did before.

"Environmental sciences, yeah. Could you point me in the right direction?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"If you go past the statue of the man with the enormous p***s," said Renard, who smirked at this description for perhaps entirely imaginable reasons but who knew, "and take a left, it's over that breezeway and past the retention pond."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Predictably, Jamie's cheeks lit a faint pink. Renard may or may not have expected as much. Whatever traits this Jamie shared with his previous incarnations remained a mystery to him, but- "With the enormous... I'll keep that in mind." It wasn't that Jamie had an issue with silly innuendos or even sex in general, but it was the last thing he'd honestly expected Renard to bring up.

He may have blushed, but he laughed a little, too.

"Thanks, I think I can make it now." With a small, cautious sort of wave and a moment of hesitation, he left the gallery.

shibrogane

I thiiink we can call that there thanks for the rp!!